Welcome Olivia!

61/365

Laboring

60/365

Sleepy Mae

59/365

A World of Possibilities

58/365

Creating

57/365

Critter Fun

56/365

Christmas Morning

55/365

I set the camera on a tripod and set the delayed timer that ordered a few days before Christmas (best $35 I've spent in a while for camera accessories!) and allowed my camera to do the work and allowed me to be a part of the Christmas memories.    I highly recommend it!  After the main morning event was done, I took the camera off the tripod and captured up close the kids playing with some of their toys, but hands down I fully recommend the 'main' event be set up on a delayed timer to be a part of the festivities! 

Christmas Eve

54/365

Candlelit Service

53/365

 

 



Choir

52/365

All Aboard

51/365

Snow!

50/365

A New Baby

49/365

My good friend recently moved to town and doesn't know many people yet, but myself and a mutal friend and I decided to have a mini-shower for her.   I can't throw a party without some sort of theme and so I went with "Bundle Up, Baby"   I'll write more later on my main blog about our fun with more pictures.   It was a fun night celebrating new life and girl time!  :)

Snowflakes

48/365

No Pictures!

47/365

My Littles

46/365

Askew

45/365

Candlelit Dinner

44/365

Our family of four enjoyed ourselves a candlelit (and tree lit) dinner tonight.  No fancy food but still a fancy element - the kids loved to look at the flame and understand how they worked.  It was a fun change of pace to an otherwise standard meal.  :)

Watered Webs

43/365

As it is Friday the 13th it seemed fitting that I would run across a spider web on such a day as this.  This one was quite pretty and so grabbed a cell phone shot of it.  :)

Jump

42/365

On Thursdays we exercise "No Tv Thursdays"  some weeks its challenging, others it honestly abandoned and this mommy will gave.  This week though we had a good day with no tv and lots of play.   There was a lot of imagination throughout the day, we built pirate ships that converted to space ships, we played games and there was a lot of jumping around.  It was a good day to not just turn on the tv because they were "bored"  :)  

Love This

41/365

Book Club Fun

40/365

Frozen Falls

39/365

Christmas Card

38/365

Had the privilege of taking my friend's Christmas Card photos today in the frigid air!  The sweet little one said she didn't want daddy to put her down because her legs were frosty!   So true! Yep 27' and a 6 minute photoshoot, but we got a few shots, including some with her down from daddy's arms.  :)

Wonderment

37/365

Cheer

36/365

Twirling

35/365

Mae loves to twirl and so today we decided to twirl to The Nutcracker which was a lot of fun and magical.   I also set up the camera on a delayed timer to test of some perspective shots.   It was fun to capture the memory without having to be super posed and stiff in a picture. 

Nature's Glitter

34/365



50mm prime lens: 1/160, f/2.8, ISO: 160 using my 10x macro filter   the sun was coming in towards the camera.

Women's Dessert

33/365

December Sky

32/365

Announcing

31/365







































I did a photoshoot for friends of mine who are announcing their first little one that is due in June!  They are first time parents and I couldn't be more excited for them!


Grandma Fun

30/365

 



Anticipation

29/365

A Feast

28/365

Still Useful!

27/365

Outtake

26/365

 

Mae loves to make silly, scary, angry, crazy, happy faces - this was one of the many during our first holiday shoot that I did before bed.  

Sunrise

25/365

Night Walk

24/365

Bailey

23/365

Bear Hugs

22/365

As of today, I begin Week 4 of Project 365.   They say it takes three weeks to form a habit.  I think in general that I've formed this habit of daily photo taking a long time ago.   The difference it seems is that I am seeking out the beauty and the little things more as a result of participating in this challenge.   Not only am I trying to better my camera skills, but I am appreciating the beauty in the non-traditional shots.   Today's picture is one of those shots.   This was originally a photo of my daughter in the full frame, but the simplicity of her hugging her bears was so sweet and beautiful that was what I wanted to capture and so in post processing I cropped it.     It's been a great ride and I'm excited to see how it goes from here!

Frozen Beauty

21/365

 



A World of Exploration

20/365

Bedtime Reading

19/365

 

Now that my boy is able to read he loves when he gets the opportunity to stay up and read after we do our night time routine.   Tonight was one of those nights and I told him he could stay up for 30 extra minutes and then go to bed.   It was sweet because when the time came he came into our room and said "Thanks for letting me stay up to read! I love you! Good night!"   There were hugs and then he went back to his room, grabbed a blanket of mine and cuddled up and went to sleep.   He forgot to turn off his light, but that just made for an opportunity for mom to take a picture of the sweet moment and him combing through the pages of How Things Work (He's bookmarked it in many places over the months he's had it in order to talk to his dad about things.)

A New Friend

18/365

 

Today M fell in love with a puppy at a store.   She said she really wanted to love it and take it home.   I explained to her that this puppy cost money and that she needed to buy it.  She said I could have all her money in her piggy bank (about $4) and I said well you already have so many other stuffed animal friends.  "We can give one away."  I said well if you're willing to give away two and give me the money in the piggy bank then we can take this puppy home.   She said ok and then we continued to stand in the aisle and decide which two animals she would give away and she led both times with "Well, not my bear... how about..."   It was adorable and sweet and when we came home she did great to find the same two and put them in the give away so they could "bring happiness to other kids"   It was adorable and sweet.



Dreaming

17/365

 

 



Slide!

16/365

 

Floored

15/365

Bedtime

14/365

 

Perplexed

13/365



Mae thought I needed my hood on, but when it came to snap a picture together she was too engrossed in what was on the tv.  :)

Click On

12/365




Tonight's picture is solely taken as a result of it being the end of the evening, kids in bed, inspiration depleted and the need for another photo still looming.   So having sat down and the camera itself being my reminder on my nightstand I needed a picture, I picked it up and snapped this.  As a result of my effort in the photography being blasé, I decided to edit it a little. 
I used a soft matte on it using a Paint the Moon action Light Frost Matte at 86%